In the past, various different types of motors have been employed to drive laundry machines or laundering apparatus. In one of these past driving schemes, it is believed that a conventional DC motor was utilized to drive the laundering apparatus through either a conventional differential thereof or through a conventional gear reduction device. Commutation of such past conventional DC motor was effected by brushes riding on a segmented commutator so as to control the currents flowing through the armature winding sections of such past conventional DC motor. Of course, one of the disadvantageous or undesirable features attendant to the above discussed commutated DC motor is believed to be that wear of the brushes riding on the segmented commutator necessitated frequent brush replacement. Other disadvantageous or undesirable features of such past commutated DC motor are believed to be that sparking may have occurred between the brushes and the segmented commutator thereof which not only may have effected RF interference but also may have limited the use of such past commutated DC motors in some critical areas or particular environmental applications. A yet further disadvantageous or undesirable feature associated with such past laundering apparatus is believed to be that it was necessary to employ a differential or gear reduction device with such past conventional DC motor to effect the operation of such laundering apparatus since it is believed that such differential or gear reduction device not only added cost to such laundering apparatus but also might need repair or replacement during the life of such laundering apparatus.
Various circuit and motor schemes have been utilized to develop various types of brushless DC motors or electronically commutated motors, and one such scheme is shown in the David M. Erdman U.S. Pat. No. 4,005,347 issued Jan. 25, 1977 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,015,182 issued Mar. 29, 1977, each of which are incorporated herein by reference. In these patents, an electronically commutated motor has a stator and a multistage winding arrangement associated therewith including a set of winding stages, a rotor having a set of constant magnetic polar regions, and means for sensing the relative positions of the rotor polar regions with respect to the stator. Positive signals developed by the position sensing means were processed by circuitry for selectively energizing or electronically commutating the windings of such electronically commutated motor. The use of the above discussed circuitry and electronically commutated motor in a laundering device driving it through a gear reduction device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,327,302 issued Apr. 27, 1982 to Doran D. Hershberger which is also incorporated herein by reference.